LONG! Carnival Destiny Review & Photos ~ 6-14-10 ~ 5 days to Grand Turk, HMC & Nassau

* DISCLAIMER: This review will be very long, but will include LOTS of photos! I'm writing this part while our pictures load to Photobucket, which is taking FOREVER!

My family and I sailed the Carnival Destiny, which departed Miami on Monday 6/14/2010 for 5 glorious days to Grand Turk, Half Moon Cay & Nassau. We booked this cruise last-minute (only 9 days out!) on a whim, really. Our son had only a few of days of school left and we still hadn't made any plans for summer vacation. I "just happened" to be looking at the Carnival web-site (how convenient, right?) when I came across this cruise. The price and itinerary were more than we could resist (we love GT & HMC!), so hubby said my two favorite words: "Book It"! We decided to keep the cruise a surprise to our son, as a reward for making it through the 6th grade with all A's & B's on his report card. Little did I know that the days ahead would make keeping the secret quite a challenge. (You can read more about that later, if you are interested!)

A little about us: We are a married couple (14 years!) in our late 30's & early 40's (ahem... I won't say who's older!) with one 12-year old son. We live in West Central Florida, between Tampa and Orlando. This was my 7th with Carnival, and 14th cruise overall. My DH has one less cruise than me and our DS has one less cruise than DH. We have enjoyed sailing other cruise lines (twice Disney, twice HAL, once RCCL & once NCL), but feel that we get a better value for our money with Carnival. What Carnival is "lacking" in ship amenities is more than made up for in cabin size, service, and overall food quality, variety & presentation, in our opinion.

Before I even had the chance to "feel" that the cruise was real, I was caught up in a whirl-wind of pre-cruise duties: doing laundry, getting the car tuned-up for the drive to Miami, cleaning the house, making kennel arrangements for our dog, etc. We usually plan our cruises months in advance and I generally have the ship's deck plans memorized before sailing, so this was an altogether different experience for "control-freak" me! I was kind of excited to be cruising "sight unseen", but did make some time to check out a couple of recent Destiny reviews and the CC roll-call. The reviews were really mixed (some good, but most complained of old ship, bad smells & gaudy decor) but we decided that we would stick by our motto: No cruise is a bad cruise! The roll call was not very active, but I discovered that two other families live just a few miles away from us. Small world!

Over the next couple of days, our "short cruise" blossomed into a long vacation. First, we decided to drive down the day before (Sunday) and stay one night in Fort Lauderdale, as an "excuse" to eat at our favorite FLL restaurants: Grampa's Bakery and Lester's Diner. I got brave enough to make my first-ever bid on Priceline (thanks to years of reading about using PL here on CC) and snagged a room at the Hyatt Place North for only $51... what a deal! (We just paid $104 for the same hotel in April.) Then, I remembered that we had quite a few reward dollars accumulated on our Disney Visa Rewards Card. How convenient! So, we decided to stay Saturday night at Disney. When I saw how inexpensive the room prices were at Disney, we decided to make it 2 nights! LOL! So we booked a room at Pop Century Resort for Friday and Saturday. Instead of spending the rest of our reward dollars on tickets to the theme parks, we decided to put the dollars toward eating and bank the rest for later. Cha-ching! We could eat, swim and visit Downtown Disney for free, after all! Loving the FREE pre-pre-cruise stay!

* SECOND DISCLAIMER: Below is the rest of the "events" leading up to the cruise. Most of you may want to skip this part, as it has absolutely nothing to do with the actual cruise review! For those of you who actually keep reading... here's my ranting & raving confession of the 4 days leading up to the cruise!

So, DS's last day of school was Thursday and I had a few days to do all the pre-cruise tasks "in secret" while he was at school. DH & I even devised a "plan" to keep him in the dark about the cruise all the way through Monday. On Friday night when DH came home from work, we would "decide to drive to Orlando to go shopping at the Outlet Mall". After all, DS has outgrown all but his last pair of jeans, and just put a hole in the knee of that pair. We would be at the Outlet Mall "so late, that we would be too tired to drive all the way home", so "why not see if Disney has a room available? We could use our Disney Dollars to stay for free, after all!" Then, when checking in "we would discover they had a room available for 2 nights!" Why not stay two nights? When we got to the room and DS noticed that we had packed an over-night bag, we would say "You caught us! Yep! No fooling you! We wanted to surprise you with a quick trip to Disney as a reward for your good grades, but Ha! Ha! You figured us out!" Wink! Wink! Then, on Sunday morning, we would get in the car to "drive home". With the PSP in his hand, DS wouldn't even notice that we were driving the opposite direction on the highway! When he finally notices we're not headed home, we'll say "We decided to eat lunch at Grampa's. Daddy's on vacation this week, so why not? It's not like we have any other plans!" Wink! Wink! Then, after eating at Grampa's, we will again be "too tired to drive all the way home! Hey, why don't we stay the night at the same place we just stayed in April, the Hyatt Place North?" Wink! Wink! Then, on Monday morning (with PSP in hand again), he won't even notice that we are (again) driving the wrong direction on the highway... and... in 30 minutes... Viola! We're at the Port of Miami. "Wow, we drove the wrong way! Why don't we hang around and watch the ships sail away? FROM ONBOARD THE DESTINY!!!!" So, that was the plan, at least!

Making progress all week on getting the house ready to be gone for 10 days. Forward to Thursday morning: While doing the bills, I got the awful surprise that our electric bill had almost tripled from the previous month. (I immediately thought: "good thing our stay at Disney is free!") I called DH at work and gave him the bad news about the high bill and a short lecture about keeping our electric cost down. When DS got home from school, he & I went grocery shopping (unbeknowst to DS, my dad would be house-sitting the cats for us!) and ran a few other errands (actually, pre-cruise chores, little did DS know!). Right before we got back home, DH called on my cell phone to say I had gone "too crazy about the electric bill and had turned the A/C up too high!" He said the temp inside the house 85 degrees. Only problem was... I hadn't even touched the thermostat! After I got home and we did a bit of investigation, we discovered the A/C was blowing only hot air and we couldn't figure out why. So, at 6:30 pm I started making phone calls to get emergency (RIGHT NOW!) service on our A/C. My DH even remembered the phone number from the catchy tune for the "ACRee Air" TV commercial, which advertises they don't charge extra for after-hours service. Well, "after hours" means up until 8 pm... but... the phones are turned off at 5 pm! (Nothing like false-advertising, when you need an A/C repairman!) I left a message at several other businesses and even spoke to one guy who said he could be at our house between 8 and 10 --- the NEXT morning! So, we opened the windows, removed as much clothing as possible and hunkered down for a very hot evening! We filled the tub with cold water and took frequent "dips" to lower our core body temp. It really worked... for a few minutes, anyway! I decided to give up on the original plan of packing after DS went to bed... it was just too hot! I found a couple of old floor fans in the garage, turned on all the ceiling fans and we actually slept a lot better than expected. The evening low went all the way down to 78 degrees. Yay!?

The next morning morning (Friday), I was able to reach our regular A/C guy at 6:30 am (I may have woken him up!), who said he'd be at our house by noon. (What a let-down! I was hoping for much earlier... after all, vacation starts tonight! Would he be able fix the A/C in just a couple of hours? I sure hoped so!) I was tempted to call the other companies back, but decided that "this may be big" so we better stick with someone we know. (Good call, as hind-sight would prove!) What a first day of summer for DS... stuck in a hot house with no A/C! Luckily, we have a pool... and with the windows and sliding glass doors open, he swam while I kept a watch on him from inside, doing my "chores". So, I did more laundry (in the heat!) and starting sneaking DS's clean clothes into the master bedroom to be packed. I even managed to sneak the luggage out of the spare bedroom without him even noticing! You never realize how many thing you need to pack from all over the house until you are trying to sneak it from the various locations. Not sure if it was the heat, or not, but DS paid no attention to me. The A/C guy showed up on time and spent about 2 hours trying to make it work. The long and short of the A/C story, is that the compressor was DEAD and not fixable! We decided to go ahead and buy a whole new unit. (Good thing the Disney stay is free, right!) Good thing we stuck with our regular A/C company, so we didn't get ripped off!!!

So, to not get all stressed out over this huge & unexpected expense, we decided to think about all the positives like: Thankfully, we already had the (Free!) room lined up at Disney (thankfully, only 30 minutes away!) because it would be another hot night at our house. Thankfully, the A/C company was willing to drive to their warehouse in Tampa, during rush-hour on a Friday night, to pick up our new A/C unit. Thankfully, the A/C guy was willing to install it on Saturday and thankfully, it would only take a couple of hours! Thankfully, a kennel nearby had room for all 3 of our cats to spend the night for a reasonable cost. Thats a lot to be thankful for! And, thanks to the A/C going out, we could take DS to spend the night at Disney, under the "guise" of not wanting to spend another hot night at home. Plus, the broken A/C gave me an "excuse" to take our dog to (the pre-arranged) stay with our vet. (I was going to have to sneak our dog there, while my dad stayed with DS!) But... (one little negative!) with all of the day's excitement with the A/C guy and while I was making arrangements to take our cats to the kennel for the night, DS walked into our bedroom and noticed all the luggage. I tried to pass it off as "those are the clothes we need to stay tonight at Disney" but... even as gullable as DS is... he is not dumb! He asked: "Why do we need 3 suit-cases for an overnight stay?" Oops! LOL! So, after taking a deep breath, I told him we didn't want the clothes to go bad in the heat, so we were going to take all our favorite clothes with us! Dumb, I know. He just rolled his eyes and smiled!

So, it's getting late and we needed to catch all 3 cats before they realized what was going on. Sweat! Sweat! Then run them to the kennel. Ahhh... the car A/C feels great! Then back to the house to take the dog to the vet. More sweat! Then rush back home and finish packing before DH gets home from work. Sweat! Sweat! DH gets home. Still packing. Still sweating. DH & DS load the car (now a total of 4 suit-cases & 2 back-packs) while I shower. They sweat. DS asks DH why we need all this luggage to stay overnight at Disney. DH sweats even more. Done showering. Close all the doors and windows and lock up the very hot house. Drive to Disney in late-rush-hour traffic. Well, at least we're on vacation! Yay! While checking in at Pop Century Resort, DS overhears the desk clerk say we are staying 2 nights. DS smiles. I sweat! Drive around a bit to find a parking space close to our hotel room. Lug all 6 bags up to our room. Sweat! Man, Florida is hot! Step into hotel room to discover that A/C is not on! Sweat madly! Turn A/C on and set the temp to 60 degrees! Go on a walking tour of resort and to find food. Sweat. Eat dinner and walk back to room. More sweat. Room is still hot! Take off as much clothing as possible and fall asleep watching TV. Room a lot cooler by (Saturday) morning. Shower. Drive home to meet A/C to install new unit. Welcome surprise: A/C guy showed up early and was almost done installing new A/C! Yay! My dad slept at his house Friday night, but drove over early to our house on Saturday morning. He was there to let the A/C guy in early, thankfully! Pay A/C guy. Ouch... that hurt!!! Stick around the house a while to make sure the A/C is cooling properly. Go pick up the cats from kennel. Hug dad and thank him profusely for house-sitting. All the while sweating, because the temp in the house is still 83 degrees. Drive back to Disney. Thankfully, the hotel room is now cold! Swim. Eat. Sleep!

Sunday morning. Now DS is accusing us of "abuse" because we won't tell him what's going on with all the luggage... especially because the A/C at home is fixed! I concoct a story that we are flying to Europe and we kept it from him only because we have a 14-hour flight and he hates to fly. He frowns and says he doesn't buy it! We drive to FLL and DS doesn't notice (thanks to PSP) that we have been driving for hours... in the wrong direction from home! DS then realizes we have been driving for 3 hours. DS sees signs for FLL International Airport and says "maybe we are flying to Europe, after all". We pull up to Hyatt Place North. DS says "Ah Ha! This is where we stayed before our cruise in April! Are we going on a cruise?" I say... no we are not going on a cruise in Fort Lauderdale. (Not a lie!) Check in to hotel. DS overhears desk clerk ask me if we are going on a cruise and also hears my reply, "Yes, but we are sailing out of Miami." Unload luggage. Ride elevator to room on 6th floor. Room smells really moldy! Go back downstairs and request different room. New room assigned on first floor. Room smells great! DS insists we tell him what is going on. We confess all to DS! He is very excited! We are exhausted! Yay... we're on vacation, though! Go eat dinner at Lester's Diner. Yummy! Sweat walking to and from the car. It's 90 degrees... at 9 pm! Shower off all the day's sweat. Sleep.

Now... finally... the cruise review can BEGIN!!!

Up next: Embarkation Day, Monday, 6-14-10

Wow - what an exciting 'beginning' to your 'secret' cruise - too bad about DS seeing all that luggage!! But sounds like it was a great surprise in the end - waiting to hear more!:D

OMG!!!! Hope the rest of the story in awesome. Waiting for the rest.

Wow! What a great beginning to your review!:D

Heather

WOW!!! You had a hectic time before and during the first part of your vacation!

Enjoying your review. Any hints for getting the Hyatt Place North on Priceline? We are considering this hotel for our pre-cruise night.

Enjoying your review. Any hints for getting the Hyatt Place North on Priceline? We are considering this hotel for our pre-cruise night.

Hi,

I used the info found on the CC Priceline thread, which was entering the following info:

Fort Lauderdale

Downtown area

3 stars

According to the thread, this is the only hotel you would ever get when using these parameters at PL. However, I have noticed that since we bid & won the room at HPN, others have bid the same way and won rooms at another hotel (Riverside, I believe). The other hotel also has good reviews, but they charge $20 a night for parking. I guess we wouldn't mind paying for parking if we won a really good rate for the room. I will factor that info into my bidding the next time I use PL ... which will be soon for our upcoming cruise in March 2011!

Go to that thread... lots of valuable info there!

Working on more of review right now! Just finishing labeling our (248!) pictures that were successfully uploaded to Photobucket. Taking a lot more time than I anticipated. Will work hard to get more posted tonight!

We'll start with the highly coveted Circle C & Clob O2 pages and all 5 days of the Fun Times. Sorry... but we didn't get a copy of the Camp Carnival pages. The copies below are from the 06-14-10 Carnival Destiny 5-day Eastern Caribbean sailing from Miami. In the interest of time, I am just posting the cover page of the Fun times and both sides of the tear-off planner page for each day. If you have a specific question that is not answered on the copies below, please ask and I'll be glad to look on the inside pages of the Fun Times for the answer!

Enjoy!

Circle C pages:

Circle C page 2:

Circle C page 3:

Club O2 page:

Next up: more Fun Times!

Fun Times 6-14-10:

Activities 6-14-10:

Dining info 6-14-10:

Fun Times 6-15-10:

Activites 6-15-10:

Dining info 6-15-10:

Next up: more Fun Times!

Fun Times 6-16-10:

Activities 6-16-10:

Dining info 6-16-10:

Grand Turk Shopping Guide:

Grand Turk guide, page 2:

Grand Turk guide, page 3:

Next up: more Fun times!

Fun Times 6-17-10:

Activities 6-17-10:

Dining info 6-17-10:

Fun Times 6-18-10:

Activities 6-18-10:

Dining info 6-18-10:

Next up: Nassau Shopping Guide & Debarkation Info!

Nassau Shopping Guide:

Nassau guide page 2:

Nassau guide page 3:

Carnival Destiny Debarkation info:

Debarkation info page 2:

Next up: let the review BEGIN!

Great review! I've subscribed to your thread so that I won't miss a post. Considering this ship/itinerary for late '11...

Great start. I can't wait to hear all about your adventures. thank you

Great start! I cannot wait to hear the rest. I will be on the Destiny in about 10 days for the KW/ Cozumel itinerary. I cannot wait to hear more about this ship!

Great job and very thorough so far. A friend of mine was on this cruise so looking forward to another person's viewpoint.

What a great surprise for your son. I am loving your review, keep it coming......

We are on the Destiny on July 8 to KW and Cozumel. Can't wait to read more! Thank you...

I am soooooooo loving your review. It has me trying to plan a secret crusie get away for DH, DS and DD!!! It will be a challenge, but I'm up for it. :D

I am on this same cruise for November 1st.

Really enjoying this. I subscribed...

Thanks for the review, we will be cruising on the Destiny in 3 months, and your info will be helpful for us!

Thanks again

Great start...can't wait for more!

We leave Friday!!! Do you remember when the farewell party was (and did they have free drinks)

Well this review just stalled. LOL Please come back and finish Queen.

We leave Friday!!! Do you remember when the farewell party was (and did they have free drinks)

The farewell party is usually the last evening from 5-6 pm - yes free drinks! Check the 'fun times' for location - it won't be heavily advertised! :D